A Happy Birthday

Today is Jesse's birthday!  I'm sure we will go out for dinner tonight, but we actually did most of our celebrating a few weekends ago while I was on fall break.  We took an early birthday trip to Chattanooga to Ruby Falls and their Zipline Adventure Course.  It was actually a surprise trip - so much so that he didn't know where we were going until we pulled up at our final destination!  I tried to pick something unexpected and geared more towards something he would choose to do instead of me, because he deserves a fun little getaway.  He does so much around the house, without complaint, so that I can study.  I am so blessed with his love and support, so I wanted to (partially) return the favor.

Saturday morning we loaded up bright and early with no clues as to where we were headed.

I had wanted to take him back to the zipline course when we saw it on our last trip to Chattanooga, but turns out that he didn't even remember there being a zipline course!  So he still didn't know my plan until we arrived!  (I was a little proud of myself for keeping the secret so long!)

Due to the long wait when we arrived we decided to go inside Ruby Falls first.  It was neat to see the different rock formations.  (Was reminded of the terms stalagmite and stalactite from, you know... 4th grade.)

And the original passageway to the falls was so tiny! 

(the tiny gap behind the sign)

The grand finale of the cave of course is the falls:

Then we had lunch at their cafe, gaining strength for our big adventure!

And went to the lookout tower:

We headed back to the zipline course and barely had to wait before we were strapping our gear on.  Now, I won't lie.  I was a bit nervous.  I've never done anything like this before, and it wasn't just a simple zipline.  It was a whole obstacle course where you went from platform to platform in the treetops walking across rope bridges, planks, or tight ropes! (check out their website here for pictures) Unfortunately they don't allow cameras on the course, so I had to resort to posting pictures of pictures they took of us going down the zipline.

This was SO much fun, and Jesse was proud of my surprise.  :)